Geoffrey Donald Sims

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from arou ...

(13 December 1926 – 5 August 2017) was a British physicist who served as Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

from 1974 to 1991.

Life

Sims was born 13 December 1926 in London. He studied at

Imperial College, London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, gaining a BSc in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

in 1947 and in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

in 1948; an MSc in mathematics in 1950 and a PhD in physics in 1954.''IEEE Transactions on Education'', March 1968 page 83 He worked for

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

from 1948 to 1954 then the

Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Th ...

until 1956 when he joined the academic staff of the Department of Electronics at the University of Southampton, becoming a professor and head of the Department of

Electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

at the same university, a position he held from 1963 to 1974.The University of Southampton: An Illustrated History, published 2002
History of ECS Sims died on 5 August 2017, at the age of 90.

Honours

Sims was awarded an

in 1971.Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January 1971, p. 11 He was made a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the Academy of Engineering in 1980.Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellowship List He was awarded the honorary degree of LLD of the University of Sheffield in 1991.Sheffield Honorary Graduates
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References

1926 births 2017 deaths Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Southampton Alumni of Imperial College London Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering British physicists British electrical engineers Vice-chancellors of the University of Sheffield {{UK-academic-stub